Don't let go
by Timeristic
Summary: The S.S. Clintasha has set sail in this story. :) Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, sorry most of these chapters are going to bereally really really short, so sorry! A couple are like 1000 words long, though...oh well. Beginning sentence from Russingon5eva, special thanks to her!**

It seemed almost unrealistic to wish to see him again. He'd been gone for two years. There was no way he'd ever be back. We lived across the street from each other, though it felt like we lived together we were so close. Clint had asked me out so many times, but I'd declined. I didn't want any love in my life. I was an assassin, and that's what I did best. I couldn't love Clint. Sure, we were partners, but the fact that he wanted to love me in a way I didn't want to love him just made me sick. The way he talked about me made me feel awful because I knew that I would never love him back. He'd said something to me before he left, but I couldn't make it out. I tried and tried to figure it out, but I knew it would take a while before that would happen. I waited every day, counting the hours. I'd lost count at around seven hundred. On the twenty ninth day of Clint being missing, I began crying myself to sleep every few days. After a year had passed though...I was a wreck. I needed Clint. And maybe I did love him in the way he wanted me to. I just didn't know.


	2. Chapter 2

**The chapters switch from Natasha to Clint, so yeah. I couldn't figure out a good place for Clint to be, so PM me if you have something better than Iraq and I'll fix it! :)**

I didn't know how long I'd been there. I'd been lost for so long now. She was right. Natasha. She was always right. The faint sunlight didn't even reach me through the dark bars of my prison. Hours passed slower through every day I waited. The silence was almost unbearable at times, but through it I could sometimes hear the voices of Natasha. We were best friends and at times, our relationship seemed to slip into love, but she made sure that never happened. Never. It made me sad, really, because I did love her. She just didn't fall in love with me the way I wanted to.

I shook off my thoughts as I began to think about how sore my back was. I stood up as tall as I could with my hands chained behind my back, stretching out everything and when I was finished, I slumped back down into the uncomfortable posture I'd been in for the past long while. I'd lost count of the days. Maybe I was at twenty. Maybe I was at two hundred. I didn't know. I didn't really want to know. The think that made me want to hack up my lunch, though, was the fact that the men that had captured me and hung my bow on the ceiling that I couldn't reach. If one arm was free I could probably reach it, and that would be all I needed to free myself. I didn't even know where I was.

"Tasha!" I found myself screaming every once in a while, but...nothing. She never answered me. My wrists were sore and my back still ached, but that was okay. Once a month – if I counted the days – I would find that three men came into me cell – two with guns – to interrogate me. They would try to find out information about America. Plus, the men spoke English.

"I'm not telling you anything." I spat every time they asked me the slightest question. They would just tighten the chains around my wrists, making them bleed even more. Whenever I tried to shift my wrists around, I would find that the scabs that had stuck to the metal were just tearing off every time. But then that day came. They took off the chain connecting the ones around my wrists to the wall so I still couldn't function my hands, and they threw me outside into the dirt.

"I ask you again!" the only man without a gun shouted. I suspected that he was the captain of the crew.

"I'm not telling you anything!." I snarled. That's when he took out a knife and held it to my throat.

"Tell me or I'll kill you." he growled into my ear.

"Why should I tell you?" I asked in a mocking tone of voice. He pressed the knife harder and I felt blood trickling down my neck.

"Fine." he said. He yelled a command to a few other men and they nodded, running off to go get something.

"Let's do this old fashioned, eh?" he whispered into my ear. He grabbed me by the back of my neck and he threw me face first against a wall. I stumbled off, coughing. In a daze, I felt him do something to the chains on my hands. After I'd recovered, I realized that he' moved the chains to the front of me. He took my hands and put them against the wall, taking a nail and hammering it through a rung in the middle. He smacked the rest of it with the hammer so it bent up all the way. He was making sure that I wouldn't escape. I was now facing a wall with my hands above my head. The man took a knife and he cut my shirt off, slicing me in some places as well. I forced myself not to groan in pain.

The men that I'd seen run off earlier came back with what looked like...whips? I felt the blood running down my back but I ignored it.

"You have one last chance to avoid all of this and just give me a little information." the man growled. I didn't say anything.

"You choose your own death." he said, a grim smile spreading across his face.

"Begin!" He yelled, and I felt my flesh tear. At first, I took it lightly, my face scrunching up maybe a little when I felt the leather cord tear against my skin. After twenty minutes, I screamed every single time. I counted all of the whips even though it was hard to concentrate, but by the time I finally heard the man yell, "Stop!" I'd counted over three hundred. My back was wet with blood and I saw a pool of it around my feet. The thing was, no matter how limp I laid, the chains would always hold me up. I was slumped in an awkward angle and my entire back felt like it was on fire, but there was nothing I could do about it. I'd rather die for my country than give this place an advantage over it. I knew my death would break Natasha's heart...just not in the kind of way mine would have.

"We have ways of making you tell us." The man whispered in my ear. I could see that his shoes were stained with blood. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks, too, but I couldn't wipe them away. I looked up at the man.

"Tell us." He said. I moved my lips but no sound came out.

"Tell us!" He screamed, slapping my face back down to where it hung limply over my chest.

"No." I said firmly.

"So be it." he said, making a gesture to the men. I turned my head around to see what they were doing. They were getting guns.

"You're going to kill me?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No, no. We're going to cripple you." He replied. Then I heard a gun fire and a sharp pain right in the place where my knee bent told me that yes, they were going to cripple me. The shot maybe seven times before I hung limply from the chains. I couldn't stand. If they released my I wouldn't even be able to walk. I screamed out for Natasha to come and the man laughed, grabbing my face, wrenching my head around to face him.

"Who is this Natasha?" He asked. "Little girl waiting at home for you to come back? Because that's not going to happen if you don't tell us."

I stayed quiet. There was no way on Earth that I would tell these idiots anything about my country.

"As you wish." He said, taking the butt of his gun, smashing it into my temple. Then everything went dark.


	3. Chapter 3

**Whoo hoo it's Natasha again lol anyways, SORRY ABOUT THE TENSES AND THE NON EDITED CRAP! I'll fix it later c:**

It's been over three years now. I found myself dreaming about Clint more often than not. I've thoroughly analyzed what Clint said to me, and now I knew. He'd said, "I'll be back, I promise."

I was mad at him, actually. He'd broken yet another promise to me. There were so many it made me upset, but there was nothing I could do about it. There would never be anything I could do about it. Clint was gone, probably for good. I cried whenever I thought about him. Never again would I have a partner when I worked. Especially not a man. I gazed sadly at my single picture of him. I really did miss him. I even found myself kissing the picture goodnight before I went to sleep. Sometimes I wanted to burn the picture to have no memory of Clint, but I would always chicken out before the match even got close to the edges.

I looked at the clock. It was one in the morning again. I usually stayed up until about two AM before crashing, but for reasons I didn't know I woke up not three hours later. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't help it. I bit my lip, trying to force off a sob, but to no avail the tears came and streamed down my face.

"Oh, Clint, why did you have to leave?" I said to myself. So many times the government had asked me to do something in these three years, but I always declined. What if Clint came back while I was gone? That was always my excuse, anyway. I laid down in my bed, pulling my covers up to my chin. That night I fell asleep faster than I had in three years.


	4. Chapter 4

**Yeah...tenses...idk...**

Before the first time I woke since the captain had tried to kill me with the butt of a gun, I'd been whipped and crippled, but this time when I woke, I was in a white room. All white. It burned my eyes a little. After all, I'd been in the darkest part of Iraq for what felt like months. I had no hand cuffs digging into my wrists this time. Nothing. In fact, there were only white scars left that proved any sort of injury on my wrists. I was in a normal hospital gown, so I guessed I was in a hospital. My arms were restrained as well as my legs, but I didn't try to get up. I was pretty exhausted. My back ached and I felt like an elephant was sitting on me, but that was okay. It didn't matter much, anyways.

I found Natasha in the back of my mind every time I thought about something. I wasn't sure why, but all I knew was that she was waiting for me.


	5. Chapter 5

**MORE TENSE EDIT CRAP JUST DON'T MIND IT**

I woke to the sound of pounding on my front door.

"Clint?" I automatically called. No answer. The banging continued and I walked over to my door. I looked out a small window that no one knew about and there was a German Shepherd staring right back at me, eyes wide and furious. I let out a bark and I rolled behind the door.

"We know you're in there!" A man shouted. That was definitely not Clint. I stayed quiet and I stood, walking to my closet, grabbing a gun. I loaded it so it was ready to fire in case I needed it. I walked back over to the door.

"Open the door, Ms. Black Widow. Open it before we break it down!" The voice of another man snarled. I ripped open the door and pointed my gun at the forehead of one of the three men standing there, all with guns bigger than mine.

"It would be a good idea to put that down." The man in the front, the first voice I'd heard said. I raised my hands above my head, dropping my gun onto the floor. Everything I'd learned in my training was running through my head and I knew that these guys were in for a surprise. They came into my house, looking like they would shoot my if I said anything at all. They led me to my kitchen and one of the men pulled out a chair.

"Sit." He ordered. I plopped down into the chair. I'd been through things like this before and I knew exactly what I was going to do. They were going to interrogate me and leave.

"So, Tasha..." the man started.

"Don't you dare call me Tasha." I growled. No one could use that name except for Clint.

"Okay, Natasha." The man started again. They led me through a series of questions, only a couple of which I answered correctly.

"Thank you for you time." he said. Then, out of nowhere, I struck. I didn't even know what I did my instincts led me through it. Then, after maybe three minutes, there were three men knocked out on my floor. I took their guns and stored them away, calling their dog and giving it a few pats on the head.

"I'll take you to the shelter in the morning." I whispered into his ear. Then I took the men and shoved them out into my front yard, knowing that they would wake up with no memory of anything. I'd whacked them all on the head pretty hard, after all. So I went back upstairs, ready for another long night, but again, I fell asleep faster than expected, and that time, I actually slept until 9.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for not updating for EVER I was just trying to write ahead so I could post a ton at a time...which I did XD Hope you like it, leave a comment if you wanna! :3**

"Come on, Clint, it's time to go home." said a voice in the morning. I opened my groggy eyes and looked at the figure above me. I blinked the light out of my eyes and I rubbed them, trying to get used to the pure white room again. I lifted my hand. There were no more restraints.

"Come on." she said again, grabbing my hand and helping me to sit up.

"Ow." I moaned. My back was sore and I felt awful. I let my head sink to my chest and my eyes close once again.

"Wake yourself." the voice of a man said. I snapped awake and looked at him. I smiled when I recognized that it was my twin brother.

"West?" I asked to make sure. He nodded and I summoned up my energy to stand and walk over to him. I embraced him, feeling myself beginning to cry.

"I thought I'd never see you again." he whispered to me. I buried my face into his shoulder, hugging him tighter.

"Me neither." I said. I pulled back slightly.

"I'm sorry." I said, wiping away a few of the tears. West shook his head.

"I haven't seen you cry in over five years, brother." He said. I stopped cold.

"Five years?" I asked. West nodded.

"You've been missing for four and a half years." West said. I bit my lip.

"Does everybody think I'm dead?" I asked. West nodded.

"We're going to bring you home, though. Everything will be back to normal in a couple weeks." West said. I smiled at him, again holding him close. Though he was the younger twin, he was stronger than I was.

"Okay, now it's really time to go. Natasha's waiting." West said.

"Natasha!" I exclaimed. Now all of my thoughts were focused on her. I would get to see Natasha again! Everything would be back to normal, we would be partners again and we would do everything together again. I smiled at the thought, feeling more tears coming, but this time I welcomed them.

I was going home.

**Clint has a twin brother. I do what I want. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry it's been forever I've just been procrastinating and working on like five other stories so ya...just yell at me to upload please :)**

I heard my phone ringing. That stupid phone. I hated it. Every time I heard it ring...you know who I thought it was. I went over to see the caller ID and there was none, but I answered it anyways.

"Hello?" I said.

"Tasha!" yelled a voice into the mouthpiece. I held the phone away from my ear for a couple seconds, then I listened again. I could hear a loud whirring noise in the background.

"What are you in, a helicopter?!" I yelled.

"Actually, yes!" the voice replied. I couldn't recognize the voice.

"Who is this?!" I asked. There was no reply for a couple seconds.

"Tasha, it's Clint." said the voice. My entire body went numb.

"Clint! You're alive! You're okay! I'm...I..." I started.

"Clint!" I screamed into the mouthpiece when I couldn't find words.

"I'm a person, too." said a voice that sounded like Clint's, but a small twinge to it.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"My twin brother, West." Clint said, though there was a laugh to it. I smiled. I was glad that Clint had his own self back.

"I'm almost home, we're landing in about five minutes. That was the only reason I was able to call you anyways!" Clint yelled. Now I recognized his voice entirely. He was so full of life and energy...I wanted to hear his story. What even happened to him over the four some years he'd been missing? I knew that with Clint, he'd answer any question that I had to offer.

That's when I came to the decision I'd wanted to make years before. Clint was alive. He was happy.

"Clint?" I said.

"Yeah?" he yelled.

"I lo-" I started. Then the other line went blank.

"Clint?" I said.

"Clint!" I screamed. Where was he? Was he okay? I started freaking out. Where was he?!

I hung up the phone and I stood, pacing around my living room, waiting for something – anything – that would suggest that Clint's phone had simply died.

I waited for what felt like hours, but there was nothing. I finally decided to turn on the TV to the radio station to see if anything had happened. It was a news flash.

A helicopter had gone down.

**To leave you at that cliffhanger would be ****_sooooooooooo _****evil...so I will...for a while :)**


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